Back Among the Living

Copyright @ 2007 - 2010. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

It's the 3rd year this orchid has bloomed for me...

I hope all the garden bloggers are enjoying spring. Austin experienced some truly beautiful wildflower scenes this year along the roadways, thanks to Lady Bird Johnson. Some of the bloom-filled fields took my breath away...

A lot has happened since my last entry in March. First of all, the results of my tests at Texas Oncology were benign. Dr. Kasper officially pronounced me 'cancer-free', which was a huge relief. He's a really great doctor, but I'm hoping I'll never have to see him again. As if in celebration, my white penstemons decided to show off this year.

My second bit of news is that my parents are moving from Missouri to Georgetown, Texas this summer. They just closed on their new house a few days ago, which is only 30-40 minutes away from my front door. My parents are happy about their move. Historic Georgetown has a lot in common with their hometown, Independence Missouri. They are especially looking forward to being in the area next year for the Poppy Festival. My sister decided to become a Texan as well when she moved down to San Antonio on April 1st. It will be good to have family living relatively nearby after all these years.

Speaking of poppies...last month I saw loads of gorgeous poppies in when I visited with Julie of The Human Flower Project. [Thanks for the invitation, Julie!]. Her garden was divine. We were joined by Pam of Digging and MSS of Zanthan Gardens as well, which was a real treat. Julie was kind enough to share some of her sage and phlox, which are doing well in my garden as of today. I'll take a photo when the sage blooms.

I'm glad to see so many of my plants survived the winter snow we had a few months ago. My Purple Winecup (Malvaceae Callirhoe involucrata) is blooming nicely...


...though it seems rather partial to the sidewalk at the moment. I don't have the heart to prune it back into the flower bed.

The red yucca (Red hesperaloe), seen in the photo below, is the only one of three that is blooming this year. It's odd because last year the yucca on the far left was the lone-bloomer. Not sure what the problem is. I'd appreciate any ideas.

This year I decided to plant a container inside the large pot on my front porch. Hopefully once the begonias and sedum fill out the plastic edge will not be invisible.

My birthday was last weekend and I was totally spoiled by family and friends. I received this orchid from my son & dh...

And a beautiful -- rather large -- plant arrangement from a dear friend...

Best birthday ever! :-)

"In the nature of this child of the out-of-doors there ran a fibre of care for wild things. It was instinct with her to go slowly, to touch lightly, to deal lovingly with every living thing: flower, moth, bird, or animal. She never gathered great handfuls of frail wild flowers, carried them an hour and threw them away. If she picked any, she took only a few, mostly to lay on her mother's pillow – for she had a habit of drawing comfort from a cinnamon pink or a trillium laid where its delicate fragrance reached her with every breath." ~ GENE STRATTON-PORTER: A Little Story of Her Life and Work

Some of my Gene Stratton-Porter books...

Copyright @ 2007 - 2010. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Veterans Day Remembrance

My mother is the person who taught me to love plants, as she learned from her mother and grandmothers. As a matter of fact, this sedum in my garden...

...comes from the original plant of my great-grandmother, Vinny. Here is a photo of her at about 12 years old...


Speaking of mothers, a reporter for the Kansas City Star interviewed my mom for this Veterans Day weekend. It's a good article, though the writer left out some interesting tidbits. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother moved to Berkley, CA during the war where my grandmother, a true Rosie the Riveter, made bomb parts and welded plane fuselages while my great-grandmother, Nell, was a dietitian for the Navy. They all moved back to Missouri after the war; just before my grandfather returned home from duty as a Marine Sergeant of the Guard on the USS Mount Vernon.


I had so many relatives serve & sacrifice during WWII that I watched the outstanding HBO series Band of Brothers with a personal interest. If you haven't caught it yet, please consider renting it.

"...From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother..."Speech by HenryV in William Shakespeare's play of the same name.

In Flander's Fields

Snakes and Blooms

Hello! I've really missed blogging these past few weeks and am very thankful to be feeling better now.

There have been a few changes in my garden in the past month. My passion flower has grown up and over my back fence. The Mexican Fritillary continues to show interest in laying eggs on the leaves. I'm hoping for some caterpillars soon.

The passion flower blossoms offer a nice touch of color to my back garden.


A few days ago I saw this pretty snake (photo below) on my driveway. It was close to 4 feet in length with a narrow head. I'm not sure of the species, though I did check with the Austin Herpetological Society web links. A few walkers said they saw two other snakes just like it a block or so away from my house on the same day. I was glad when the snake finally reached the safety of the grass where misguided people would be less likely to see and kill it. The South Texas Poison Center offers some good advice as to how one can let snakes live in peace.



My container water garden continues to flourish. This week's waterlily bloom has a much longer stem than the previous flowers which seemed to just lay on top of the water before.



It really is lovely!

I'm also pleased that my pots of sedum are doing so well. My cuttings originally came from my great-grandmother's garden. I'm trying to grow the sedum as groundcover in some of my flowerbeds, but they seem to prefer containers like this one.

Speaking of groundcover, I have a mystery plant in one front bed that I have not identified yet (see photo below). I'm not sure if it's friend or foe, but the little purple flowers are cute.

I enjoy watching the activity in my front garden. The Cannas are blooming by the front stairs.

My Bat-faced Cuphea (cuphea llavea) is thriving in the warmer summer weather.

And this purple buddleja still attracts its share of butterflies, though some of the blooms are beginning to fade.

One plant that's in bloom all over Austin right now is a kind of Leucophyllum, or what some here call Texas Sage. I'd like to add at least one to my garden.

I'm hoping to visit some more flora-rich Texas sites like the Fredericksburg Herb Farm soon. And when I do I'll certainly blog about it.

"Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared." ~David Ben-Gurion